Solar energy

Solar plane completes the Erumrundung

The flight around the world without a drop of fuel: The “Solar Impulse 2” landed safely in Abu Dhabi. The Team celebrates.

The “Solar Impulse 2” is where you in front of more than a year, was launched in the United Arab Emirates. The plane with the adventurer Bertrand Piccard in the Cockpit, sat safely in the capital, Abu Dhabi.

#Si2 & @Bertrand Piccard successfully landed in Abu Dhabi, proving #Futur eisclean pic.twitter.com/KBvlnwi4Mh

— SOLAR IMPULSE (@solar impulse) 26. July 2016

In Abu Dhabi, the “Solar Impulse 2” at 9 was. March 2015 to the first stage lifted off. “We had promised that we would come back,” said Piccard after the landing. A short time earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon congratulated: “This is a historic day,” Ban said in a Video circuit with the pilot. Piccard finish his trip, but it was only the beginning for a sustainable world. Ban thanked the pilot for his courage.

On Twitter, the Team celebrated the successful earth orbit.

Time for a big hug and kisses at the Mission Control Center in #Monaco https://t.co/VyQEjknVX2

— SOLAR IMPULSE (@solar impulse) 26. July 2016

In the meantime, the status of the project, even before demolition. Last year, Piccard and André borschberg, who took turns in the Cockpit had to take a nine-month forced break in Hawaii. The battery had a Defect that was repaired consuming. Then the journey continued on the American mainland and the Atlantic ocean towards Spain, and from there back to the Middle East.

The actual flight time was according to the organizers, nearly 510 hours, the “Solar Impulse 2” more than 40,000 kilometers. With the to circumnavigate the globe in a solar plane, the two Swiss scientists want to promote the use of Renewable energies. The carbon fiber-built plane with a wingspan of 72 meters, has more than 17,000 solar cells.

wa/cw (dpa, twitter)